TRADITIONAL, NOT CONVENTIONAL.

Sleep Deprivation (April 22, 2014)

Sleep deprivation means, very simply, getting less sleep than you need. Most adults require seven to eight hours nightly. People who actually need fewer than six hours of sleep a night are fairly rare (about 3% of the adult population), so almost anyone who is operating on that little sleep is going to be chronically sleep deprived.

People who are sleep-deprived, even if it’s only for a few hours over a couple of nights, have increased levels of stress and inflammatory hormones and multiple cognitive impairments (including increased moodiness, impaired reflexes and decision-making, and problems with concentration and memory). If the sleep deficit becomes chronic, they will also have increased risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, diminished immune function, and an overall greater risk of death.

If you chronically deprive yourself of needed sleep, eventually your body learns to compensate – sort of. You get accustomed to functioning at a lower level, and you may not even feel sleepy anymore. The detrimental effects continue and accumulate even as your body accepts this new, impaired state as normal. But it is possible – and certainly desirable – to get back to your normal state of full rest. I’ll write more on that next time.